O’Connor: I’m still so proud
Kerry manager Jack O’Connor was cornered in the room next to the warm-up area, but he faced the microphones the same way his players had faced the Tyrone defence.
Head up. Chin out. He was proud of his players, he said, for fighting to the bitter end. As for the details of the post mortem, the causes of defeat were varied but the outcome inarguable.
“Well, maybe we should have put over a few points,” he said.
“Maybe we started going for goals too early, but no excuses - Tyrone are an exceptional side, you have to give them all the credit in the world. They held the ball up very well, supported each other and got some great scores, but I’m proud of our fellas, they fought to the very end.”
That end might have been different had Kerry been able to build on their second goal. The momentum teetered when Tomás Ó Sé beat Pascal McConnell at his near post, but O’Connor acknowledged that Tyrone hadn’t allowed Kerry to press home their advantage.
“They were very tenacious in defence, and they coped well with anything we threw in high. I suppose we could analyse it until the cows come home, but it looked like they’d been through those battles before. Maybe if we had snatched a draw and had another go at them we might have improved, but there were times when it showed we hadn’t been in the same heat of battle as they had.”
The much-rumoured switch of Eoin Brosnan to full-forward became reality at around 3.29pm yesterday, but O’Connor conceded that Kerry weren’t able to give the big man from Dr Crokes the kind of ball he needed.
After an early flourish from Brosnan and Cooper the supply wagons kept getting stopped.
“I thought there were times in the first half when we held the ball up too much and didn’t give it in. That was encouraging Tyrone to up their tackling and their work rate, so I suppose the quality of ball going in wasn’t great at times.”
Though Tyrone struck for 1-1 as the half wound down, O’Connor was still positive at the break, and he acknowledged that Darragh Ó Sé’s surging point on the whistle, which cut Tyrone’s lead to three points, had given them hope.
“At half-time the feeling in the dressing-room wasn’t too bad. There was a strong enough wind out there and we didn’t feel too badly about being three points down. We got the first score after half-time but we didn’t get the momentum going to build on that. There were a couple of times we got it back to a point but we didn’t draw level or get in front.”
The Kerry boss was pragmatic when asked if he’d noticed that only three of the four additional minutes were played: “I did. We should have played for another minute, end of story, but look, we’re not going to get excited about that. It’s a fact, and if there’s four minutes to be played, then they should be played, but we’re not going to change that now.
“Tyrone are an exceptional side. They had to be to beat the likes of Armagh, who are a very good side, and we felt coming up that they’d have to play exceptionally well to beat us and I think they did that. I was concentrating on my own players, but Tyrone have some exceptional ball-players all over the field. They work very hard for each other and they make it difficult for you.”
Given the number of Kerry players over thirty, there were inevitable questions about green-and-gold retirements. O’Connor fended them off with the inevitable answer - “We’re not going to talk about that today,” - before paying due tribute to his charges. I gave us a great chance going into the game. We didn’t play too badly - we were sloppy a couple of times, we got caught in possession once or twice, but I couldn’t fault the lads for heart.
“They were fantastic right through, and even at the end they were going full pelt.
“They left their hearts out there on the pitch and we couldn’t have asked for any more than that.”
Then O’Connor left for the stroll down the hall to congratulate the new All-Ireland champions.
No manager enjoys that trip, but he made it in his usual style. Head up. Chin out.
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